Lance Sewell, President of Orlando Health South Lake Hospital, was the guest speaker at the May Chamber of Commerce Breakfast.
Lance thanked the business community and service organizations for being so supportive to the dedicated staff during this past year.
Orlando Health South Lake Hospital is a community hospital offering a full array of care close to home for residents of South Lake County.
South Lake Hospital began when a group of community-minded citizens came together in 1938 to form the Clermont Welfare League. Their simple goal was to build a clinic to meet the needs for health care service in South Lake County. South Lake Hospital was founded in 1947 to provide quality healthcare services and promote healthy lifestyles to this community. Over the next six decades, the hospital has continuously expanded its services and community outreach to better serve South Lake residents. That commitment culminated in 2000 with the opening of the beautiful new campus. In 2019 South Lake Hospital fully integrated with Orlando Health
As the south Lake community has grown so has South Lake Hospital and today the hospital is the cornerstone of the community. The 180-acre health, wellness and education campus provides quality care to the citizens in its community. With 170 beds and more than 1,600 employees, it is equipped to serve the community.
In 2018 South Lake Hospital was the first in the Orlando Health system to open two freestanding emergency rooms within a month of each other, Blue Cedar in south Leesburg and Four Corners ED and Medical Pavilion in the southern part of the county.
Recently South Lake Hospital was named an IBM Watson Top 100 Hospital in the United States in the medium community hospital. Orlando Health South Lake is one of only 20 hospitals to receive the Everest Award and one of only two in the medium community hospital category for all of the United States.
South Lake Hospital also recently received a 4-star rating from the Center for Medicare Services and a A grade from the Leapfrog group, which recognizes quality and safety standards. This is the sixth consecutive A rating for South Lake Hospital in the last six reporting periods.
Expect some exciting things happening at South Lake Hospital Campus
A new five-story patient bed tower will frame the front of the hospital, offering additional medical/surgical beds, intensive care unit beds, neonatal intensive care unit and more.
They are building out the third floor of the women’s center and relocating the post-partum beds to the third floor to increase the number of both labor and delivery beds and most post-partum beds. This also comes with a new entrance to the women’s center with additional safeguards for security.
Arriving on the South Lake Hospital campus will look quite a bit different. Presently, most people enter from Citrus Tower Blvd and turn onto Don Wickham Drive to go to either the main entrance, the women’s center or the outpatient services entrance. When construction is completed, the main access point will be off Legends Way. A road will be built from Legends Way to the campus which will align with the new entrances. Coming in and out of the campus will also be easier with a traffic light at the intersection of Legends Way and Citrus Tower Blvd. (Note: During construction, parking will be an issue).
The National Training Center is once again a destination for members and teams in training. In preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games, the NTC recently hosted the 2021 UANA Tokyo Olympic Swimming Qualifier. Athletes from nearly 50 countries competed including elite swimmers and world record holders. The NTC will host and support the Olympians and Olympic hopefuls in a safe and enjoyable environment.
Since joining Orlando Health in 2006, Lance Sewell has successfully guided the community-based, non-profit organization through an ever-changing and challenging time for healthcare organizations. He served as chief financial officer at Orlando Health South Lake, as well as the financial liaison for the hospital’s information systems. He has also led key ancillary departments, including accounting, health information management, patient business, materials management, care coordination, outpatient surgical services and three hospital-owned physician practices.
Lance is a certified public accountant and holds both a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from Belmont University in Nashville. Heavily involved in the South Lake and Central Florida communities, Lance has served with the South Lake Rotary and Leadership Lake County. He is a member of the Healthcare Financial Management Association and the American College of Healthcare Executives. In addition to his professional associations, he has also served as past board chair for the Community Foundation of South Lake, past board chair of the South Lake Chamber of Commerce and a board member for New Beginnings of Central Florida.
